A new look for an old favourite
On Monday, Coca-Cola rolled out its new website design, which aims to be more of an online magazine than a brand mouthpiece. Called "The Coca-Cola Journey", the new site is named for a magazine that was published for the company's employees during the 80s and 90s. It features articles, interviews, opinion pieces, videos, and blogs about a variety of topics: sports, history, health, environment.
Sure, it's impossible not to notice that this is indeed a Coca-Cola website, with frequent references to the brand and a subjective favourable slant, but material is presented in a way that's interesting, engaging, relevant and consumer-facing.
Coca-Cola is just the latest corporation to shift their web presence to be more about sharing a story than flat-out hawking a brand. In a New York Times interview, Ashley Brown, director for digital communications and social media with Coca-Cola, explains that his team now operates similarly to an editorial team at a magazine.
While there's definitely a Coke-friendly "point of view" to the content, they're striving to be a credible source, open to things such as accepting opinion columns that don't necessarily jibe with the views of the company. Coca-Cola's willingness to open up debates and discussions on their site demonstrates a degree of transparency that customers increasingly appreciate and expect.
The team at Coca-Cola understands the value of creating top-notch, consumer facing content online and making it the star of the website. They understand the importance of sharing stories rather than hitting their audience over the head with corporate messaging. It's an approach that we're seeing more and more of amongst corporate brands online, and it makes sense. People appreciate the added value. We all know that Coke comes in a red can and tastes fizzy. We don't need to see pictures of supermodels drinking pop. (Well, maybe some of us do…) Give us something to keep coming back for.
